


when it's christmas

by orphan_account



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Christmas, Established Relationship, Happy Ending, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, I SWEAR its happier than it sounds, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, basically minho hates christmas and hyunjin loves it and yeah, gonna be honest this is just me projecting my life, hyunjin is a good bf, i think, that's all i got enjoy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-23 20:04:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17086847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Minho has never truly enjoy Christmas and Hyunjin is determined to change that.





	when it's christmas

**Author's Note:**

> merry christmas holidays are hard sometimes!!!! also like i said this is me projecting so some of the ways christmas is celebrated might not be the same for everyone it's just how my family does it. also only the sadness is from me i dont have a bf to do all that cute shit so i just wrote what i would like IDK. also ive never ice skated so not sure why i included it but. also this was kinda rushed so i barely read over it so u know sorry for errors. ill stop rambling but first if holidays are hard for you too just know i love u and ur not alone mwah

Enjoying the holidays when you came from a bad family was always difficult, Minho learned this too well. He had  _ maybe _ one good Christmas with his parents the year he was born, before everything went wrong. Before his life became something that people only talk about in hushed tones, before it became something that earned him pitiful glances from anyone who heard. Only a couple years later, his parents were out of his life and the holidays always left a bitter taste of  _ what could have been _ in his mouth. Sure, it was better for him to be away from them. But nothing could stop the sadness he felt seeing other kids his age happy with their parents. This feeling only got heavier during Christmas.

 

It wasn’t that he hated Christmas, hate is a strong word. He liked the food, he liked the gifts, he liked the happy atmosphere. Or, what should be the happy atmosphere. It was hard to enjoy completely when it always felt like he was missing something. Something that he could never have again. Something that will always leave a hole in his heart.

 

Christmas was  _ okay _ after he was away from his parents and was living with his grandparents. It was  _ okay _ before he was old enough to understand the other problems in his family, like how no one really liked each other but pretended to because  _ it’s family _ . He enjoyed playing with his cousins and opening gifts. He enjoyed eating a few too many sweets and pretending he didn’t when he was asked who ate all of the cookies. He enjoyed opening one present on Christmas Eve with his sister and grandparents. He enjoyed setting out cookies and milk for Santa. However, there was a lot he didn’t enjoy, but didn’t realize until he got older. 

 

He didn’t enjoy feeling different because everyone he knew spent Christmas with their parents, something he didn’t have. He didn’t enjoy how as his sister got older she wouldn’t put cookies out with him anymore and sometimes wasn’t even home on Christmas Eve, choosing to be with her friends instead of him. He didn’t enjoy that as he got older he noticed how much arguing went on in his family during the holidays. He didn’t enjoy how most of his extended family seemed to look down on his sister and him for no reason. He didn’t enjoy when his sister stopped showing up to Christmas, once she was in university, that all of his family would gossip about her. Most of all, he didn’t enjoy when he started to count down the days until he was old enough to stop showing up as well.

 

So that’s what he did. When Christmas came during his first semester at university, he made some excuse as to why he couldn’t make it and spent the holiday by himself. Probably giving his family another thing to gossip about, but he couldn’t care less. He finally got to spend the holiday his own way, which was pretending it didn’t exist and ignoring his emotions about it.

 

That Christmas Eve is when he met Hyunjin, his now boyfriend of 10 months. 

 

Minho had been at the local grocery store buying something to make himself for dinner when the younger ran into him. Literally ran and nearly knocked him over. When Hyunjin had realized and started apologizing, Minho asked him if he was okay, since the other seemed to be panicking. Hyunjin then let out a long stream of words including “Christmas cookies”, “burnt”, “ruined”, “mom”, and “angry”. Minho was interested in whatever had happened, but decided let the boy go instead of pushing for more. He did, however, ask for Hyunjin’s number to hear the story later. Hyunjin happily gave it to him with a blush on his cheeks that he would deny if you asked. 

 

Within the next few days, Minho had learned a lot about Hyunjin. He learned that the other was about a year and a half younger than him, was planning to study dance at the same university as Minho, and that he loved Christmas like nothing else. The boy went on about how he loved everything from the decorations to how his entire family got together. Hearing him talk brought a twinge of sadness to Minho, but he was also glad that he wasn’t in the same situation as Minho. In the New Year following Christmas, Minho spent a lot of time with Hyunjin. It didn’t take long for the two to develop strong feelings for eachother. They began dating in February after Minho gave Hyunjin a tour of his, soon their, campus and ended up kissing Hyunjin after seeing how happy he was. And that’s how Minho got into the situation he was in now, his lovely boyfriend standing in his kitchen with a box of Christmas decorations.

“How much is in here?” Minho asked eyeing the contents of the box, which included a mini tree, tinsel, string lights, stockings, and more.

 

“Enough.” Hyunjin said with a smile on his face.

 

Hyunjin’s smile was enough to melt away any animosity he might have about the decorations soon to be all over his apartment. 

 

“I know you don’t like Christmas…” Hyunjin started. “but that’s because of your family, which is completely understandable babe. But,” He paused as if he was trying to find the right words. “you’ve never spent it with me before, and I love Christmas almost as much as I love you. So, I want to help you enjoy it.” He finished and smiled sweetly.

 

As much as he didn’t think he could ever truly enjoy Christmas, he loved his boyfriend and would do anything to keep him smiling. So how could he say no to a smiling Hwang Hyunjin and a box of decorations? He couldn’t. So the decorating began.

 

Decorating with Hyunjin made him happy. They put the mini tree on the table in the living room, stockings on the wall, string lights in his bedroom, and tinsel wherever Hyunjin said they should. Hyunjin had tried to hang up some mistletoe, but Minho talked him out of it with the excuse “I can kiss you anywhere and anytime.”

 

After hours of decorating, and some kissing after the mistletoe situation, they were finished. As Minho looked around his apartment, he felt a little bit happy. He guessed he could understand why people liked it so much, but there was still something missing. He didn’t realize until later, while watching a movie with Hyunjin, that it had been the first time he truly decorated for Christmas. Even though he celebrated it with his grandparents, they had never decorated to the extent him and Hyunjin had, and never even let Minho help. This was something many families did every year, something they looked forward to, and he had only experienced it because of his lovely boyfriend. Thinking about this brought the bitter taste back to Minho’s mouth. Hyunjin apparently could tell something was wrong, so he suggested turning off the movie and going to bed.

 

Hyunjin’s idea to get Minho to enjoy Christmas didn’t end with the decorations. A few days later, Hyunjin took him to an ice skating rink. Minho liked ice skating, he had gone a lot with his friends in high school and didn’t consider it to be much of a Christmas thing, but more of a winter thing. He had never gone to the rink downtown surrounded by Christmas lights, however.

 

After about five minutes of ice skating, it was clear that Hyunjin was terrible at ice skating. He was clinging to Minho like his depended on it, so the two were averaging about five steps per minute.

 

“How are you so bad at this?” Minho asked after Hyunjin almost fell for the third time.

 

“I actually have never ice skated before.” Hyunjin admitted. “My mom didn’t like it, so we never went as a family.”

 

“That makes a lot of sense. You wouldn’t be holding on to me this close if you knew how to skate” Minho joked. 

 

“Maybe I would, I do like holding on to you babe.” Hyunjin said, giving Minho his classic smile that always makes him feel like everything will be okay.

 

“Why are we here though, if you can’t skate?” He asked.

 

“You like skating, and a lot of families skate together for Christmas. So I thought maybe bringing Christmas to something you already like would help to make it more enjoyable.”

 

It worked for awhile. Minho taught Hyunjin how to skate, and the other ended up being pretty good at it for only just learning. For a few hours Minho was happy, he loved his boyfriend, he loved skating, and he loved seeing his boyfriend smile as he learned how to skate. As always though, Minho’s happiness was interrupted. He was standing watching Hyunjin skate, and sometimes almost fall, when a kid almost ran into him. The kid’s mom came up to him and apologized, but Minho assured her it was fine. He was watching the mom, kid, and the rest of their family have fun when he felt the familiar bitter taste in his mouth. As always, Hyunjin could tell when something was wrong and suggested they leave and get hot chocolate.

 

Hyunjin’s third, and final, idea on how to get Minho to enjoy Christmas was taking him to his family’s Christmas party. He said it was okay if Minho didn’t want to go, but Minho loved Hyunjin’s family so he agreed to go.

 

Hyunjin’s family went all out for Christmas. The party was at Hyunjin’s very wealthy uncle’s house, or mansion. They had a large tree out front that was decorated, it was the kind of tree you see in movies. Actually, everything about the party was something Minho had only seen in movies. Happy families who love each other, smiling, laughing, exchanging presents.

 

Hyunjin was giving Minho a tour when it happened. He had just been introduced to Hyunjin’s grandparents, they all called him a wonderful boy, when he saw Hyunjin’s stocking. It was on the wall with the rest of his family’s and instead of saying Hyunjin it said “Jinnie.” The sight made him smile, since he loved to call his boyfriend that nickname. What really got him, however, was the stocking to the right that said “Minho”. He almost teared up, but had to make sure it was his and not for someone else.

 

“Hey, is that my stocking?” He asked, pointing it out to Hyunjin.

 

“Yeah of course. You’re family now too.” He replied.

 

Minho was family now too. He had a mansion full of people that barely knew him, but loved him enough to call him family. They loved him more than his own family had. Minho knew couldn’t stay in there without crying, so he excused himself to go outside. Once he was outside he was able to breathe and try to gather his thoughts before going back inside. It wasn’t long before Hyunjin found him outside.

 

“I’m sorry,” He started. “I’m sorry for pushing so much for you to enjoy the holiday when I know about your family problems. I’m sorry for-”

 

“Hey,” Minho cut off his close to tears boyfriend and wrapped him in his arms. “You don’t have to be sorry. I’m glad you pushed and I’m glad I’m here.”

 

“I just..” Hyunjin sniffled before continuing. “I know I’ll never be able to replace the family you should have had growing up. But, I wanted to show you that there’s more out there. And that you’re more than your past and how your family treated you. You can enjoy the holidays, and life with me in the future, or even not me-”

 

“I want it to be with you. I don’t think I could have enjoyed any of this with anyone else.” Minho said. “Throughout everything, the constant moments that brought me happiness were with you.”

 

“I love you.” Hyunjin said before kissing Minho’s forehead.

 

“I love you too, and thank you for bringing me into your family.”

 

After some more i love yous and some kissing, the two went back inside to join the rest of Hyunjin’s family. The rest of the night, Minho didn’t think once about his old family, he had a new one now. The bitter taste he normally felt was never present, instead he tasted the delicious food he had eaten. It was the best Christmas Minho had ever had, and maybe one of the best days of his life. 

 

Sometimes he thought about his old family, like when they called, or even just out of the blue when he saw a family in public. Sometimes around Christmas, the bitter taste came back but it was never as bad as before. Through everything, Hyunjin was there. He was there to show Minho that he has a new family that loved him, and wouldn’t hurt or leave him. They weren’t a replacement, because nothing can ever replace the love your parents should give you. But they were something new, something that made Minho happy. They didn’t fill the hole in Minho’s heart, nothing ever could. But they created a new part of his heart, a part reserved for his boyfriend and his family. That was more than enough.

**Author's Note:**

> happy holidays if u celebrate. if not have a great day anyway. feel free to comment. i may not respond bc i feel weird about it or it makes me anxious but i do read and appreciate everything!!!


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